To this independent voter, straight-ticket voting is not the battle we need

Desert Sage column

In this July 24, 2018, file photo, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver speaks during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Republican Party of New Mexico has joined a bipartisan coalition to stop a move to bring back vote a straight-party ticket in the state's upcoming general election, a move that comes after Oliver said this week she's formatting the ballots to allow voting in which a slate of major party candidates can be chosen all at one time.(Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

When Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver announced she would restore a check box allowing voters to select one political party for every race, she was essentially overruling a 2001 act by the legislature abolishing this practice. The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that this exceeded her authority.

Toulouse Oliver drew tri-partisan criticism for her move. (We can use that adjective because New Mexico, for the moment, has three major parties.) The Republican and Libertarian parties protested that straight-ticket voting would give Democrats an unfair boost, and even some Democrats agreed.

As an unaffiliated voter, watching this argument unfold has been like observing people arguing about some movie or TV show I have no intention of watching. Automating my choices by party affiliation has never appealed to me.

When I began voting – back when mobile phones all had rotary dials – it was done at a mechanical voting machine. As you approached, you pushed a lever that closed a curtain around you. You then moved small levers next to your selections and when you had completed your mischief, you pulled the lever back and with a satisfying noise, the curtain opened as the machine marked your ballot. Vote cast; hail Mary and our father.

(By the way, I’m joking about the rotary dials. Don’t @ me.)

In those days, there was a larger lever atop the ballot for single-party voting in my state, but that seemed like less fun than moving all the little levers. Also, by the time I gained access to those levers, I had already acquired the noisome habit of judging candidates rather than their brand.

The traditional party machines vetted their candidates and I considered their sneeches, star-bellied or not, and for some time I invested in the notion that you chose the lesser of two evils, or (when lucky) the better of two feebles.

Mechanical voting machines – those grand, clunky obelisks – have mostly gone the way of rotary dials now, and straight-ticket voting has slowly followed. Only nine states permit straight-ticket voting now, but it still has champions.

In Michigan this month, a federal appeals court overruled a judge who found that banning straight-ticket voting "presents a disproportionate burden on African Americans' right to vote,” and accused those banning it of purposeful discrimination. Clerks in Michigan also said that without straight-ticket voting, it would take longer to mark a ballot and exacerbate wait times.

The burden of a few extra seconds to mark a ballot does not seem to be the biggest hurdle preventing those who want to vote from doing so. Are we sure we want citizens to exercise their vote in a hurry? Better to fight for all citizens to have ample opportunity and leisure to exercise considered choices.

Serious obstacles to voting remain throughout the republic through ID requirements, purging voter rolls, reducing polling places and shutting down early voting. We might also reconsider the disenfranchisement of felons as long as some of us are wagging our fingers at young people and admonishing them to “don’t boo, vote.” (This columnist reminds you of your right to do both those things.)

It seems to this independent voter that a straight-ticket box, while ignored easily enough, reifies the rule of two unworthy party machines. Can we vote one of the parties out of this duopoly and give another party a chance? If not, let’s have done with it, and concentrate on detecting, for ourselves, worthy candidates among the rascals.